Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Despite having been branded with the title “the greatest second-rate composer who ever lived,” Camille Saint-Saëns is today ranked among the greats, and his works are performed frequently. An outspoken opponent of the impressionist techniques employed by Debussy, Saint-Saëns composed in a much more Romantic idiom; his works include the symphonic tone poem Danse macabre and the opera Samson et Dalila.